The sewers were dark and foul-smelling. Shadow Puppet dragged the lightning-struck wood through them at high speed.
Over a dozen breaths later, it finally poked out through a drain opening two hundred paces behind the ancestral hall.
The drain lay hidden at the end of a small alley, covered by a tangle of withered vines. No one ever paid it any notice.
Chen Mo dropped soundlessly from the tree canopy where he had been hiding. Rather than immediately taking the wood, he first closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings.
In the direction of the ancestral hall, the fluctuations of vital energy remained intense. The faint sounds of bells and ringing swords could be heard—the two were still fighting.
Farther north in the city, a newly appeared presence was rapidly drawing near, its blood energy astonishingly powerful.
The Anomaly Suppression Bureau had arrived.
"Looks like I need to leave quickly."
Chen Mo stepped to the end of the alley and grabbed the lightning-struck wood with one hand.
The charred grain bit into his palm, and a faint numbness shot up his arm.
He paid it no mind. With a thought, the wood vanished into thin air and came to rest quietly in his storage space.
"Done."
The corner of Chen Mo's mouth lifted slightly as he swiftly passed through the alley.
The Red Moon hung low, crushing the alley into a dark crimson fissure.
He hurried along close to the wall, his footsteps silent.
Tall firewalls rose on either side, pinching the sky into a narrow slit, with the Red Moon wedged between the eaves.
The cobblestones beneath his feet were slick and gleaming with moisture, black water pooled in their cracks.
At this time, most of Ganzhou still had no electric lights. The only illumination in the alley came